Spontaneous innovation in tool manufacture and use in a Goffin's cockatoo.

MedLine Citation:

PMID:
23137681
Owner:
NLM
Status:
In-Data-Review

Abstract/OtherAbstract:

Accounts of complex tool innovations in animals, particularly in species not adaptively specialized for doing so, are exceedingly rare and often linked to advanced cognitive abilities in the physical domain [1], even though the relation between such capabilities and intelligence is poorly understood [2]. For this reason, discoveries of such capabilities transcend anecdotal value and contribute significantly to comparative cognition [3-5]. Among birds, there are several reports of tool innovations in corvids, but very few documented records in other families (for example [1,3-7]). Here, we report a case of spontaneous tool innovation in the Goffin's cockatoo (Cacatua goffini), a species endemic to the Tanimbar archipelago in Indonesia. Like most corellas, they live in social groups (∼10-100) in tropical dry forests, roost in simple tree holes, and feed mainly on a seed based diet (which occasionally causes interference with agriculture) [8]. There are no records of tool-related behavior in the wild. We report how a captive male named Figaro successfully, reliably and repeatedly made and used stick-type tools to rake in food, manufacturing them from two different materials and displaying different steps and techniques.